Tag Archives: Social media

It is the start of a New Year, and a good time to examine campaigns from last year. The most compelling advertisements and videos are ones that have a strong story, humor, inspiration, and excitement. They build a bond with the audience, and inspire thoughts and action. It’s not easy to create a short video that engages audiences and inspires them to share the video and view it more than once, so it is worth examining the top videos from 2016.

Here are the most viral brand videos posted to YouTube in 2016. As calculated by Marketer MVPs, these top five brand videos generated the most engagement (likes, comments, and shares) on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and YouTube.

Domino’s Pizza (Domino’s DXP): 52+ million views

Geico (Going Up: Fast Forward): 46+ million views

Walmart (Easter Surprise – Jelly Bean Garden): 45+ million views

Nike (Unlimited You): 37+ million views

Gillette (Perfect isn’t Pretty): 34+ million views

Combined, these five videos have generated more than 214 million views last year!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

Discuss the importance of branding and brand management. How do the videos fit into branding?

Divide students into teams. Have each team analyze one of the following videos with respect to target market, key message, type of appeal, etc.

It’s important for marketers to keep current on topics of interests and trends around the world. This research gives us a good idea of what people are thinking, and what they like and need. What did the world search for in 2016? Well, besides our usual searches for love and the meaning of life and how to tie a tie, the citizens of the world used Google’s search engine to keep current on topics including sports, celebrities, world events, food, entertainment, and more.

Google processes two-out-of-three Internet queries each day. These queries give marketers a good snapshot of trends around the world. In the U.S., top searches included Pokémon Go, iPhone 7, Donald Trump, Prince, U.S. elections, Olympics, Brexit, and more

Take a look – which of these topics did you search for in 2016?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

Before showing the Google results, poll students as to what they think the top searches were in 2016. Why those topics?

One of the best things about the end of the year is the opportunity it gives us to reflect on the past, while we prepare for the year ahead. In the spirit of reflection, Facebook released its summary of the world’s top moments and events that generated the most buzz in 2016.

Among the most shared events on Facebook’s history were the U.S. presidential election, politics in Brazil, Pokémon Go, Black Lives Matter, Rodrigo Duterte and Philippine presidential election, Olympics, Brexit, Super Bowl, David Bowie, and Muhammad Ali.

The top 10 moments of were measured by how frequently a topic was mentioned in Facebook posts made between January 1 and November 27, 2016. To put this list together, mentions were analyzed in an aggregated, anonymized way and then ranked to create a snapshot of the year on Facebook.

Which events did you follow and share?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

Discuss the importance of market research. What are sources that can be used? Why is tracking trends important?